A dramatic increase in content availability has occurred in recent years. Coupled with this phenomenon is the proliferation of a wide variety of consumption devices. Accordingly, the way media is consumed is rapidly changing. Further, with the advent of video-on-demand services and digital video recorders, consumers are less likely to watch shows at the same time or in the same place. This is in stark contrast to the period of television's infancy where the family would gather around the set together. This may be referred to as appointment television. What started as a social activity has evolved largely into an individual experience where the viewer often watches a show alone when the time is convenient for the viewer, e.g., characterized as personal television.
Television viewing provides a common experience, often affording even total strangers a social connection on which to initiate conversation. Today, however, users favor non-live media sources, such as Digital Video Recorders (DVRs), Video-On-Demand (VOD) and pay-per-view (PPV) services and even rented physical media (e.g. DVDs via Netflix to view at the users' convenience).
Furthermore, viewers today can become overcome by the number of channels and programs available in the typical home. Viewers can no longer efficiently browse a printed TV guide and decide what shows to watch. Finding something of interest to watch has become very difficult. As a result, viewers often randomly scan multiple channels (“channel surf”) to find a show of interest.
Digital TV service providers have tried to respond to this information overload problem in a few ways. Electronic program guides (EPGs) improve a viewer's ability to filter through a multitude of choices. Interactive program guides (IPGs) provide basic search capabilities. However, the shear volume of channels and shows makes searches difficult unless a viewer knows exactly what show or search terms to include in a search request. Despite the availability of devices for searching electronically, viewers still prefer channel surfing as a method to select what to watch. DVR systems will automatically record shows for users based on previous viewing history. Nevertheless, advanced suggestion technologies often miss shows a user would like to have viewed.
Another consequence to the revolution in the viewing habits of consumers is the drastic decline in the effectiveness of advertising. Without the in flux of advertising dollars, the quality of content can suffer. The primary source of revenue for television stations is advertising revenue. Most cable networks sell advertising spots to national advertisers, and some also provide local advertisement availability to cable operators that then sell such local advertising spots to local advertisers. Advertisers are now looking at ways to create relationships with consumers. People may not care much for commercials, but they like goods and services and are in constant search of information about them. Thus, advertising needs to be developed into something that people are not only willing to put up with but that will also cause people to actually view advertisements in a positive light.
Accordingly, viewers need new mechanisms for content discovery and navigation, while providers and advertisers need new ways to analyze and monetize usage.
It can be seen then that there is a need for a way to bring people together through content discovery while opening new avenues for revenue generation.